[Initiative] Admin & Vendor Panel Optimization

[gtomaka]

Summary

We are redesigning the Admin and Vendor panels to accurately reflect real-world marketplace workflows and role responsibilities.

Both panels were originally derived from the default Medusa admin and share large parts of their logic. As Mercur evolved into a marketplace-first solution, this structure became limiting and introduced unclear flows, duplicated behavior, and role confusion.

This initiative focuses on aligning both panels with how marketplaces actually operate.

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Motivation

The current Admin and Vendor panels:

• inherit assumptions from a generic commerce setup
• blur responsibilities between admins and vendors
• rely on duplicated or implicit logic
• become increasingly difficult to adapt across different marketplace models

To support Mercur as a flexible marketplace platform, these panels must be predictable, role-driven, and aligned with marketplace realities.

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Scope

This initiative includes:

• auditing all existing Admin and Vendor workflows
• clearly defining responsibilities and permissions for admins vs vendors
• restructuring flows to match real marketplace operations, including:
  • orders
  • payouts
  • catalog management
  • moderation and ownership rules
• improving UX through:
  • clearer mental models
  • explicit state transitions
  • better notifications and system feedback
• ensuring all features work consistently across multiple marketplace models
  (e.g. B2C, B2B, hybrid)

The focus is on correctness, clarity, and usability rather than introducing new functionality.

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Impact

• Developers & integrators gain predictable and consistent marketplace behavior
• Marketplace operators get clearer workflows and fewer edge cases
• Admins and vendors benefit from improved UX and clearer responsibilities

This initiative lays the foundation for scalable and configurable marketplace backoffice experiences.

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Relationship to the Roadmap

This initiative is tracked on the public Mercur roadmap.

Current status: In Progress

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Feedback & Discussion

This issue is intended for high-level discussion and feedback.

Implementation details and task-level work are tracked internally and are intentionally out of scope for this issue.